A photo of Jim McGrath with his wife Darryl hangs on a message board in McGrath's office Thursday, Sept. 5, 2013, at the Times Union in Colonie, N.Y. Jim McGrath died Wednesday while on vacation in Cape Cod, Mass. (Will Waldron/Times Union)

A photo of Jim McGrath with his wife Darryl hangs on a message...

Associated Press state writing awards won by Jim McGrath sit in McGrath's office Thursday, Sept. 5, 2013, at the Times Union in Colonie, N.Y. Jim McGrath died Wednesday while on vacation in Cape Cod, Mass. (Will Waldron/Times Union)

Associated Press state writing awards won by Jim McGrath sit in...

Jim McGrath's empty desk is seen Thursday, Sept. 5, 2013, in his office at the Times Union in Colonie, N.Y. McGrath died Wednesday while on vacation in Cape Cod, Mass. (Will Waldron/Times Union)

Jim McGrath's empty desk is seen Thursday, Sept. 5, 2013, in his...

Jim McGrath's personal style is mimicked by a friend outside the Lark Tavern in Albany.
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Jim McGrath's personal style is mimicked by a friend outside the...

Jim McGrath during a 2011 video interview. (Will Waldron/Times Union)

Jim McGrath during a 2011 video interview. (Will Waldron/Times Union)

Jim McGrath during a 2011 video interview. (Will Waldron/Times Union)

Jim McGrath during a 2011 video interview. (Will Waldron/Times Union)

Times Union Staff Photo by Jeff Cohen. Editorial Writer Jim McGrath at Nov. 8, 2001 luncheon to celebrate the departure of Ellen Wager after six years at the Times Union. She was moving to Tampa, FL to work at the Tampa Tribune.
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Jim McGrath, a lifelong journalist who had newspaper ink in his blood but who would have grimaced at the cliche, died suddenly Wednesday night of a heart attack while vacationing on Cape Cod. Under treatment for a serious cardiac condition for the past two years, he was 56 and had been the chief editorial writer of the Times Union since 1996.

Known equally for his keen political eye, for his love of the Red Sox of his native Boston and for the long-billed Hemingway-style cap that he invariably wore when not at work, McGrath was an exceptional figure on a contemporary editorial board.

In a room of groomed, business-attired journalists interviewing similarly dressed politicians or other leaders seeking blessing or forgiveness from the Times Union's editorial page, McGrath stood out. His beard bristled, his eyes squinted behind unstylish glasses, his speech stutter-started when making vigorous points and his hair fringed down in the back from a bald dome. One colleague said Thursday he looked like an off-kilter Muppet; another described him as a Dr. Seuss character or a combination of absent-minded professor, walrus and Einstein.

Regardless, McGrath's head encased a brain acute with ideas and perspectives. His work won many journalism awards, including during each of the past nine years. His most recent two, announced last week by the New York State Associated Press Association, were second- and third-place awards, respectively, for editorials on dysfunction in the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk school district and on the reaction of New York state politicians to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's gun-control legislation.

"He was ... the conscience of this community," said Phil Calderone, Albany's deputy mayor and friend of McGrath's for 17 years. The pair were largely anonymous in a similar way: McGrath the voice behind most of the newspaper's unsigned editorials about the city of Albany, Calderone the top behind-the-scenes operator at City Hall. The two had lunch regularly and spoke more often, usually about Albany issues. "You could feel the passion he had for the city," Calderone said. "An editorial wouldn't have his name on it, but you could tell when it was Jim's and what he was feeling."

Mayor Jerry Jennings said, "What I always appreciated was how he made sure he had the complete story before he wrote something. He was always open to discussion — and to disagreement, if necessary — and that's what made it such a pleasure to talk to him." Jennings ordered the flags at City Hall lowered to half-staff Thursday afternoon in McGrath's honor.

McGrath was also, when he penned the occasional personal column, a wordsmith of casual, gentle eloquence. Writing in the Times Union on Aug. 25 about a visit to Cooperstown for the wedding of friends, he connected the trip with the first one he'd made to see the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame 45 years before, as a boy of 11: "It's time to celebrate. It's time to dream of all that awaits them. And for me, the temptation to drift back into old memories, some of them fuzzy and some of them surprisingly vivid, is both inevitable and irresistible."

"Few people truly achieve the status of legends in their lifetimes, but Jim McGrath was already that in our newsroom," Times Union Editor Rex Smith said. "Now we're left to cherish the memory of not only his professional skill, but also of his personal brilliance, passion and kindness."

Born June 4, 1957, in Boston's Brighton neighborhood as one of four children in an Irish-Catholic family, McGrath was the son of a newspaper printer and a homemaker. Educated at Boston Latin School and Lake Forest College and Northwestern University, the latter two north of Chicago, McGrath began his career at The News-Sun in Waukegan, Ill.

He started as a copy editor at the Times Union's former sister paper, The Knickerbocker News, in 1985. When that paper closed in 1988, McGrath moved up through the copy editing ranks at the Times Union until he was the night copy desk chief, engaging readers with arresting headlines and preventing writers from seeing their mistakes make it into print.

Former Times Union managing editor and columnist Dan Lynch, who chose McGrath to edit his four-times-a-week column in the late 1990s, put it this way in a column: "Now, let me tell you what Jim McGrath does. Most days, he saves my butt." After praising the deftness of McGrath's editing, Lynch added, "in his own right, (he's) as good a writer as you'll find in this business."

As an editorialist, McGrath took special interest in writing about Albany, national politics and environmental issues, said Jay Jochnowitz, the Times Union's editorial page editor. McGrath devoured the Times Union and The New York Times daily, and he was famed in-house for the speed of his reading, sometimes responding with thoughts and suggested changes within minutes of Jochnowitz having finished a piece.

"I always enjoyed the opportunity to debate the issues with Jim in the Times Union editorial board meetings," said U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook. "He and his writing will be missed."

McGrath was equally quick in his assessments of the inner workings of the newspaper office, limning developments and personnel moves as they occurred — or even before. When colleagues wanted to know what was really happening at work, they asked him. And he could be voluble to the point of explosiveness. About a dozen years ago, a new senior manager went to investigate a shouted argument in McGrath's office and returned with a stricken expression. She said, "Jim just asked me, 'What the (expletive) is your problem?' I don't know whether he was joking or not."

McGrath loved journalism to the exclusion of most everything except his wife, Darryl, his friends and sports. For many years he drove battered cars, wore khakis at work and jeans or shorts elsewhere, often with T-shirts and, not unusually, a glossy Red Sox jacket. The jacket was so distinctive that it was part of the costume one of McGrath's younger bar friends, Matt Walczak, wore when he dressed as McGrath for Halloween a few years ago, complete with white beard and the same Hemingway cap from the J. Peterman catalog.

McGrath was a boisterous friend to his closest companions, greeting them with a "Huh-ho!" chortle and a big arm swing into a handshake or backslap. In earlier years in Albany he seemed more reserved with new acquaintances, and so Tess Collins, who ran a succession of watering holes McGrath frequented, made a point to introduce him to as many people as she could, Walczak among them. "The younger people — they just loved him, and he really opened up as he got older," Collins said Thursday between bouts of tears. She described her staff at McGeary's, who had come to love McGrath during their years at the former Tess' Lark Tavern and later downtown at McGeary's, as devastated by the news of his death.

"Jim was the kind of guy you could meet randomly at a bar on Lark Street, and one beer would turn into seven as he'd discuss politics, journalism and baseball," said Rob Gavin, who covers courts for the Times Union. He said, "For a guy with a world of esoteric knowledge about many areas, he never put on airs."

"He wore his heart on his sleeve," said Calderone. "Whether he was feeling joy or pain about a topic, that would come through in the editorials."

McGrath's joy would have been effusive late Wednesday — or perhaps his spirit had already moved from Wellfleet, where he and his wife had been vacationing on Cape Cod, to a celebratory Fenway Park in Boston. His beloved Red Sox romped all over the Detroit Tigers, taking home a 20-4 win that included a grand slam and seven more home runs, tying a team record.

McGrath is survived by his wife, Darryl, of Albany; two brothers, Charles "Chip" McGrath of New Jersey and Tom McGrath of Milton, Mass; a sister, Mary McGrath, also Milton; six nieces and nephews; and two great-nephews.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, at Trinity United Methodist Church, 235 Lark St., Albany.

McGrath, who regained sight in one eye after receiving a cornea transplant, wanted his organs to be donated, his wife said. Financial contributions may be made in his name to Lake Forest College, 555 N. Sheridan Road, Lake Forest, Ill., 60045.